To Jackson Co., WV cemetery reading
publishers who took the time and mobilized their resources to publish
cemetery readings publications that would benefit researchers everywhere.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to acknowledge the
assistance of Betty McIntyre, of Roanoke, VA, a volunteer for the
Jackson Co., Rootsweb Mail List, who transcribed my audio tapes in 1998. Her
assistance lightened my editing load considerably. Her accurate and
intelligently formatted transcriptions and astute comments on the data made
while she transcribed added significantly to the accuracy and readability of
this work.

Also I would like to thank Carolyn
Miihlbach for the enormous amount of work she did to produce two volumes of
cemetery readings, listed in the "Sources for Added Information." Her work
contributed greatly as a source to cross-check my readings to ensure greater
accuracy in this volume.

INTRODUCTION

The impetus for this work was to find
the grave of my grandfather, Stephen ARCHER (c. 1858‑c. 1884) who died about
six months before my father, Simon ARCHER, was born 24 August 1884, in
Sandyville, Jackson Co., WV. according to a letter written by my father.
Stephen's grave did not appear where I expected to find it, in Red Brush Cemetery, so I had to
assume it was an unmarked grave or that he was buried in another location,
possibly a private plot. Based on many years of genealogical work in Jackson
Co. on his family, I was fairly certain I would not find him south of U.S.
Route 33, so I limited the search to all cemeteries, private and public,
north of U.S. Route 33 to the Wood Co., WV line and east to the Wirt and
Roane Co., WV lines and west to the Ohio River. I had an untested theory
that I might find him buried with GRANDON relations or others related to
his wife, Helen BUTCHER (1855‑1939) or with the relatives of his
grandparents, Stephen ARCHER (c. 1824‑1904) and Nancy GRANDON (c. 1824‑1897)
who migrated to Franklin Co., KS about 1890.

Because all family research is
cumulative and I did not yet know what I did not know, it seemed reasonable
to do a county‑wide survey of all cemeteries where these families lived and
create a research tool that would help me in the future. Despite an
exhaustive search over two summers of 1977 and 1978, I never did find
Stephen Archer's grave. My last resort will be to probe for fallen stones in
Red Brush Cemetery just after
the Spring rains cease some year. The task or reading all the stones in the
north half of Jackson County proved formidable and physically exhausting. I hope the research tool I
have created will be of use to genealogists today and in the future so they
will not be tempted to undertake such a fruitless search as mine has been.

PREFACE

This work is a list of burials and an
attempt to retain the integrity of the plots and family associations on each
stone as best as I could identify them. This is NOT an alphabetical listing
of names so often produced to avoid creating an every name index. I hope my
method of protecting plot and stone listing integrity will serve as a model
of how cemetery readings should be done. Alphabetical surname listings of
everyone in a cemetery destroys 95% of the value of the readings and the
work of those who collected the data. To get genealogical value from the
readings, the reader is forced to visit the cemetery itself to determine the
relationships of those buried there based on plot arrangements and names on
the same stone.

My only compromise in the interests of
time was that I did not provide a cemetery plot map of the order I followed
to read each cemetery. To do these readings I drove from Washington, D.C. to Jackson Co., WV on
two weekends during the summers of 1977 and 1978, slept in the car and
worked during daylight hours to return home to a full time 9 to 5 job. Hence
my concern to gather accurately as much cemetery data in as short time as
possible.

Every effort has been made to ensure
accuracy and completeness of the text and index. The index was compiled
using a combination of an index generation module in WordPerfect (5.1 for
DOS) and cross‑checking three versions of that index against an editing
control index maintained manually after detecting input and text conversion
errors while marking the text for the computer‑generated index or saving
files. The marked‑up master copy of the final text through seven drafts over
six weeks from auditing the audio tape against a draft transcription down
to the final printable version.

This work is an edited transcript of an
audio tape recording of the readings so it is subject to human and
mechanical errors. Where there is any doubt as to the spelling of a name,
the work "Phon." (i.e. phonetic) appears thereafter and should be a warning
to recheck the cemetery or use the name as spelled with caution. In most
cases, I spelled out the names on the tape, even the most common surnames,
to increase accuracy in the transcriptions.

To locate the cemeteries, I used a US
Geological Survey topographical map set: 7.5 Minute Series V854 (1960)
revised from aerial photography of 1975 and a General Highway Map issued by
the West Virginia Dept. of Highways, dated 1976 and used the latter map to
describe the location of the cemeteries using the county road designations
on that map but measuring distances using the USGS map.

In 2007, the road route data will be out
of date, and many of the dirt trails have been improved to be secondary
roads. Also because Jackson county is assigning names in place of county
road numbers to accommodate 911 emergency services, even that method of
describing cemeteries' locations in this book may be a problem. To overcome
this, I have given road directions to cemeteries using distance and
directions from fixed locations, usually a village or town.

The listings include a few private
cemeteries discovered by interviewing local residents and are also
identified by Cemetery Number in the readings and in the map annex.

Most cemeteries listed have a
description of the condition of the cemetery at the time of the reading to
forewarn anyone revisiting the site what to expect given the ravages of
time, weather and vandalism. Many of the cemeteries were no longer cared
for, their host churches having been abandoned long before 1977‑1978. Some
have been vandalized, and in one extreme case, totally destroyed by grazing
cows.

The work has been published in hard copy
and deposited in various public libraries and genealogical societies:

Planned but not yet done as this book is
being published is an HTML searchable version for access at the Rootsweb
online data depository for Jackson Co., WV: http://www.rootsweb.com.

The book is available for free download
in various formats (WordPerfect, plain ASCII text, MS Word from:
http://wdn.com/~garcher/index (case
sensitive)

Use the index to select the version that
best suits your needs.

Planned versions not yet available as
this is being published: and PDF and HTML

A CD with the book in the same formats
is available from the author at cost of materials and postage.

George W. Archer
PO Box 6233
McLean, VA 22106
garcher@wdn.com

NOTES

1. Notation conventions used in
transcribing the stones and markers "(Temporary marker)" ‑ usually a small
metal plaque with a sharp pointed shaft driven into the ground above the
head of the grave. Inside was usually a small piece of paper or other
material that was subject to deterioration by the elements. Most of the data
on the plaques with paper inserts will have disappeared by the time this
work is published.

"(Metal marker)" ‑ more permanent than a
temporary marker having the same shape and method of embedding in the
ground, but the letters were embossed on metal strips that were inserted
into the plaque's base plate.

"(broken, repaired, buried markers)" This notation implies that the reading
is not complete due to the condition of the stone. Markers are sometimes
repaired or replaced by family so a visit to the cemetery may be in order to
see if the data is now readable from a newer marker.

[ ] includes data not found on the
stones. The data source is identified with the entry or at the top of the
section containing the data.

" " used to quote text found on the
stone itself.

(?) ‑ the item to the immediate left of
"?" or enclosed by ( ) is not certain

( ) enclosing a number, 2‑5, in left
margin, denotes how many people were on the same stone.

( ) ‑ comment on condition or type of
stone, stone location, type of temporary marker or missing or unreadable
words, decorations, fraternal or military symbols, and ancestral lineage.

.... - to denote unreadable letters

2. Cemetery names and locations

There are more than one cemetery with
the same name, such as Parsons, Nesselroad, Fairview that may be south of
U.S. Route 33.

Locations and names of cemeteries
reference two sets of maps by the National Geological Survey and the West
Virginia Dept of Transportation.

3. Methodology of stone readings and
accuracy of the names in this work

Stone readings usually proceeded from
left to right along straight rows where possible and is so annotated in the
readings. Family relationships of these stones should not be be
implied unless designated with the identifier ("plot") at the head of a
series of readings. Readings of stones without well‑defined rows are more
random. Plots, if identified or discernable on the ground, are annotated
as such. Terrain and shrub growth often impeded consistent readings by rows
and plots.

Retaining the exact surname listings as
written on the stones was of primary concern to help identify multiple
marriages or in‑law relationships. A very few mis‑readings of stones were
corrected using several references cited below.

The accuracy of the names in the
transcription has not been field checked against the actual stones,
nor with readings taken by others. There will be differences in the
readings. If at all possible have someone go to the cemetery and check the
stones themselves. It is likely that after 30 years many of the stones will
now be unreadable.

This work should be compared with
readings taken by others. See Sources for Additional Information
(Bibliography) at the end of Cemetery Readings and before the Index.

Stones not read or missing from this
work are noted in each cemetery's listings with the reasons for the
omissions.

The following cemeteries listed on the
USGS map north of US 33 were missed and not read):

Surnames in capital letters are the
surname as given on a plot marker or the stone itself. If names on the same
stone had more than one surname, usually being married women, the probable
surname appearing in the middle of the name was capitalized and appears just
before the last surname in a listing. Both capitalized surnames are indexed.
See the opening paragraph in the Index for details on indexing methodology.

Surnames with multiple variant spellings
are cross referenced in the index.

Vital statistics are transcribed in a
standardized manner no matter what appeared on the stone: "years, months,
days." The months are completely spelled out. Exception: dates using the
format month‑day‑year as numbers were transcribed verbatim.

A very few stones used the method of
dating using numbers and hyphen:
e.g. Boyde E. ENOCH, born 5‑11‑1931;
died 5‑11‑1931

These were copied exactly as they
appeared on the stone. Usually a date format like this is month‑day‑year, as
opposed to the European system of day‑month‑year.

The word "(plot)" denotes the beginning
of a marked or discernable plot. It was not always possible to determine
where a plot ended, however. Based on this, do not assume that every name
listed in a plot is related.

4. Abbreviations

Abbreviations used in the transcription
or appearing on the stones :
aka ‑ also known as
Bro. - brother
c. ‑ circa or about, approximately
Chas. - Charles
DAR - Daughters of the American
Revolution - a national lineage society in Washington D.C.
Dist. ‑ District
DDS - Doctor of Dental Surgery (a
dentist)
Jas. - James
Phon. ‑ phonetic spelling as recorded
on the audio tape; spelling not verified.
(see comments above on methodology
using a tape recorder to record names)
nee ‑ French for "born" but used to
denote a woman's maiden name
Sen. or Sr. - Senior, i.e. older
sic ‑ as it appeared in the stone's
text; not a transcription error
IOOF ‑ International Order of
Odd‑Fellows